Matt Kapko reports that a Canadian national has consented to be extradited to the United States to face federal charges that could send him away for a long, long time:
A Canadian citizen is one step closer to standing trial in the United States for his alleged involvement in a series of attacks targeting as many as 165 Snowflake customers, one of the most widespread and damaging attack sprees on record.
Connor Moucka consented to extradition on Friday to face 20 federal charges, including conspiracy to commit computer fraud, accessing protected computers without authorization, transmitting threats to undermine the confidentiality of information, wire fraud and aggravated identity theft.
Moucka, who used several aliases online, including “Waifu,” “Judische,” “Catist” and “Ellyel8,” was arrested Oct. 30, 2024, in Kitchener, a city in the Canadian province of Ontario, at the behest of U.S. authorities. Federal prosecutors released their indictment of Moucka and one of his co-conspirators, John Binns, in November.
Read more at CyberScoop.
Given the strained relationship between the U.S. and Canada right now, DataBreaches wonders what would have happened if Moucka had not consented and a Canadian court used its authority to deny approval to extradite him to the U.S. His signed consent to surrender does not explain his reasons for consenting, but “counsel for the person sought” is signed by someone who was presumably his legal counsel, although the name is not typed under the signature and DataBreaches could not read the signature clearly.
Was his counsel a court-appointed lawyer or did Moucka have an attorney he retained? Did his counsel encourage him to consent to extradition or did Moucka make the decision to consent despite his counsel’s advice? Was there any psychological evaluation before he consented that indicated that he was fully competent to make decisions or was he in a psychological state such that he could not truly consent freely? DataBreaches is not suggesting that there was any wrongdoing, but to consent to be sent to a country that wants to put you in federal prison for a long time just makes me curious about his thought processes and decision-making.